Bennebroek Wreck, Hamburg

On the 16t of February 1713, the Bennebroek which was an 'East Indiaman'- which is a large sailing vessel. This type of sailing vessel's were built from in the 16th to the 19th Century for the trade between Europe and Southern Asia. The first were Portuguese and Dutch vessel's. English Indiamen appeared late in the 16th Century and eventually came to dominate the trade. The ships varied in size from about 400 to 1,500 tons and more; often they were larger than Men-of-war vessel's. The Man-O-War is a naval ship that was designed for combat and not for merchant service. It was typically heavily armed and often avoided by the pirates. Of course sometimes such ship were used to transport treasure or acted as escort to merchant ships. This Dutch East Indiaman wrecked near the Mtana River near Hamburg in the Eastern Cape. The vessel was disabled in a gale while homeward bound from Ceylon. It ran aground in broad daylight and began to break up immediately. Of the 150 lives on board, only 57 Europeans and 20 enslaved people from Malabar (South-Western India) managed to reach the shore. The survivors started walking to the Cape, but most turned back after reaching an unpassable River. Of those that continued, only one (although some sources suggest up to five) person(s) reached the Cape alive on the 26th of February 1714, more than a Year after the wrecking. Those who turned back lived near the wreck until June 1713, trading iron and copper from the wreck; for food with the local people, who treated the survivors with kindness. When this supply was exhausted the survivors made another attempt to reach the Cape, but after several weeks the survivors, now reportedly only consisting of 7 Europeans, found refuge with another friendly group of local people. On the 4th of September 1714, an English decked boat reached the Cape from Delagoa Bay with 4 of these 7 survivors on board. They had been found living in a local Village near the mouth of a river. A subsequent six-month search by another smaller galley propelled by both sails and oars the: 'Postlooper', continued the searched for the wreck and remaining 3 survivors. They were unsuccessful though. Although there are some reports that claim in 1716 three Englishmen were reported to be living on that coastline with wives and children and it is possible that these three men were those last three survivors. The wreck was excavated in 1985 under a National Monument’s Council permit.